Senate threatens to blacklist erring GSM operators

The Senate on Thursday threatened to blacklist any mobile telecommunication firm in the country accused of unwholesome practices despite the huge profits they are making.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, gave the threat in his remarks after the consideration of a motion by Senator Abdulfatai Buhari and 34 others.

Lawan said, “I have listened to the frustrations expressed by some of our colleagues that we can only bark, but we can’t bite.

“We are going to bark and bite this time around. We will definitely do the right thing, even if it requires blacklisting an operator, we will go for that.

“With this, I think it will be an effort in the right direction by the Senate to protect Nigerians, that is why we are here.”


Buhari in his lead debate had lamented the high rate of dropped calls situation and poor voice quality despite the fact that subscribers are heavily charged.

He also noted the disturbing and increasing rate at which data bundles expire forcing Nigerians to lose billions of naira to inefficient and poor services.

The Senate, therefore, condemned the poor services being rendered by the mobile telecommunication giants and urge the Nigerian Communication Commission to be alive to its responsibility for ensuring sanity in the sector.

The red chamber also said it would carry out an investigative public hearing to address the disturbing phenomenon.

Some of the senators nevertheless expressed reservations that the Senate’s resolution on the matter might amount to nothing since it might not be implemented by the appropriate authorities.